On a recent edition of his “Tuesday with The Taskmaster” podcast, former WCW booker Kevin Sullivan discussed AEW’s recent firing of CM Punk following an internal investigation into the latter’s backstage altercation with Jack Perry at AEW All In 2023.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On AEW firing CM Punk: “That really surprises me. It shows you how the business has changed. I mean, back in the day, there were scuffles in the dressing room, but it ended up in a handshake afterward. I don’t think … this is not the end of this journey, I don’t think.”
On Tony Khan announcing Punk’s firing before the start of Collision in Chicago: “It took a lot of balls on Tony’s part to fire him before the show, going into his [Punk’s] hometown. I salute Tony for doing that because if he had done it today, people would’ve said ‘It was bait and switch.’ We all have growing pains, especially in a job that he took over, started a company from scratch, and had a lot of problems. If the problems we heard that got out, how many were there that we didn’t hear about?”
On a recent edition of his “Oh You Didn’t Know?” podcast, Brian “Road Dogg” James offered his perspective on AEW terminating CM Punk’s contract this past Saturday.
The Senior Vice President of WWE Live Events noted that he is not the person to ask about a potential WWE return for Punk.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On being the wrong guy to ask about CM Punk returning to WWE: “I am the wrong guy to ask — that is the truth because I cannot hire nor fire — that is out of sight of my paygrade. I did mention recently that he would move the needle [by returning to WWE], but truth be told, that comment was made a long time ago … or whenever that was. It just doesn’t seem like the right time to even talk about it, you know? Things are happening in real-time. God only knows what’s going to come out at the end of this.”
On Tony Khan said he was in fear of his life over what happened backstage: “I understand where he’s coming from. I think people need to understand that, to some people, that [backstage brawl] wouldn’t be frightening — like Samoa Joe, who popped up whenever whatever happened. Some people run towards the fire and some run away screaming. That’s just the way it works.”
